Online sexual predators beware
Originally published January 12, 2007 Online sexual predators beware By Bill Cotterell FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU POLITICAL EDITOR Attorney General Bill McCollum said today he has an agreement from Gov. Charlie Crist to vastly increase Florida's undercover efforts to nab sexual predators who try to lure children over the Internet. At a briefing in his office, McCollum said combating child pornography and other cyber-crimes against children is the top priority as he begins his term in office. Other goals for the 2007 legislative session, he said, include protecting the elderly from fraud and fighting gang activity in the state. McCollum's first appointment during his post-election transition period was to keep Maureen Horkan in charge of the Jacksonville office that tracks Internet predators. At his news conference today, McCollum said he has asked Crist for $4.2 million in his budget request to increase Horkan's staff from five to 50 over the next 18 months. ''It allows them to go undercover, go on the Net, and ferret out people who would attack our children, before they do it,'' he said. ''This is one area where prevention can have a meaningful effect.'' McCollum said he discussed the idea with Crist, who is preparing his first state budget, and ''I've been reassured more than once that the request I'm making will be in his budget.'' The new attorney general, who supports capital punishment and opposes automatic restoration of voting rights for ex-convicts, said those two issues also have his attention. He has chosen three members of a special commission to study administration of lethal injection, because of a botched execution late last year, and McCollum also said he is looking for ways to speed up the clemency process and reduce a backlog of ex-cons seeking restoration of civil rights. He also said he has met with Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey on the gang problem in major cities. McCollum said he is working up a list of 10 goals for the 2007 legislative session and his first year in office - sexual predators, urban gangs and crimes against the elderly will be on it. http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070112/CAPITOLNEWS/701120327/1010/NEWS01